Kandahar, Afghanistan. As it left the ground, I barely heard it. In fact, I barely saw it at all except for the fact that I was looking toward the Kandahar Airfield. It caught my attention as it reached into to the sky, a Predator unmanned drone. The Predator, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, carries Hellfire missiles that reign down death upon those unlucky enough to be caught in its sites.
The Hellfire missile was originally designed the be a tank killer. It has become a person killer. You see, here in Afghanistan, it is being used more and more frequently against people. And there is real fear. Because the Predator can stay in the air for hours and hour at about 5,000 feet, too high to hear, it can strike when it sees fit. Unfortunately, it has seen fit to hit innocent men, women and children in this country.
While these Predators have the benefit of being unmanned which means no risk of life of those pilots, the risk to civilians, is terribly real. In fact, it has been one of the biggest problems that the Americans face. While it has undoubtedly been effective at taking out some of the baddies, the real question is whether the cost has been far too high. Just ask the surviving family members who must bury their children, their parents, their friends. And yet, President Obama is using these weapons more and more in this country. In fact, President Obama is using them more and more in neighboring Pakistan as well.
And people here and in Pakistan have been begging the Secretary of State and President Obama to stop. However, based upon what I saw in the last couple of hours at the Kandahar Airbase, those calls remain unheeded. And death from the skies continues.
A Predator Unmanned Drone - Death From The Sky!
The Hellfire missile was originally designed the be a tank killer. It has become a person killer. You see, here in Afghanistan, it is being used more and more frequently against people. And there is real fear. Because the Predator can stay in the air for hours and hour at about 5,000 feet, too high to hear, it can strike when it sees fit. Unfortunately, it has seen fit to hit innocent men, women and children in this country.
While these Predators have the benefit of being unmanned which means no risk of life of those pilots, the risk to civilians, is terribly real. In fact, it has been one of the biggest problems that the Americans face. While it has undoubtedly been effective at taking out some of the baddies, the real question is whether the cost has been far too high. Just ask the surviving family members who must bury their children, their parents, their friends. And yet, President Obama is using these weapons more and more in this country. In fact, President Obama is using them more and more in neighboring Pakistan as well.
And people here and in Pakistan have been begging the Secretary of State and President Obama to stop. However, based upon what I saw in the last couple of hours at the Kandahar Airbase, those calls remain unheeded. And death from the skies continues.